'The Killer' movie review: Interesting but lacking in suspense and thrills

The Killer movie review: A generic title like this spells doom for a movie that encompasses an assassin’s assignment that goes wrong

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Tilda Swinton
Director: David Fincher
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 118 min

A generic title like this spells doom for a movie that encompasses an assassin’s assignment that goes wrong. The Killer is not as deep and intriguing as David Fincher’s oeuvre dictates. It’s interesting enough and has a detailed rigour which might evince curiosity for a short brief while but over the length of the not-too-long narrative, this film still feels slow, ponderous and disappointing. 
 
“Stick to the plan. Anticipate, don't improvise. Trust no one. Yield no advantage. Forbid empathy, ” The Killer played by Michael Fassbender, keeps reiterating to himself as he pursues his prey. He is a killing machine who ends up making a mistake and then goes about tying up loose ends. There’s no mystery here and neither is there any twist in the storyline. The Killer is a deglammed study of the lethal precision that goes into the art of killing. It’s a cynical take on murder. The procedural approach here is sure to turn most people off. This is a story about precision and what happens when one of the most meticulous people in the world makes a mistake.

Fincher’s lead character is single-, minded, focused, highly disciplined and supremely technical in his approach to the assignment. The film about him also follows that path religiously. So there’s not much take-home for the audience here. Unless you want to sit in admiration of Fincher’s devotion to style, technique, tone and craft.  
 
This is what one may call a calculated risk. The narrative is simple has a few tense moments and even entertains briefly. Given the storyline, it’s obviously not in the same league as ‘The Fight Club,’ but thematically, there appears to be fleeting resonance thereof. The consistency in tone and typical style is reminiscent of Fincher’s best works but the rewards are not the same. He even has his trusted collaborators like cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, editor Kirk Baxter, and musicians Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross lending crucial pathos and rhythm to this telling but it does not feel enough. In effect, Fincher’s precise and calculated take on a regimented, obsessive, deadly, perfectionist assassin leaves you unfulfilled and yearning for more visceral explosiveness. 

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